'We're in orbit!' Rosetta becomes first spacecraft to orbit comet

[webfact]

'We're in orbit!' Rosetta becomes first spacecraft to orbit comet
By Dave Gilbert, CNN

(CNN) -- After a 10-year chase taking it billions of miles across the solar system, the Rosetta spacecraft made history Wednesday as it became the first probe to begin orbiting a comet on its journey around the sun.

"Thruster burn complete. Rosetta has arrived at comet 67P. We're in orbit!" announced the European Space Agency, which is leading the ambitious project, on Twitter.

Rosetta fired its thrusters on its final approach to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, known as "Chury" for short, on Wednesday morning. Half an hour after the burn, scientists announced that the craft had successfully rendezvoused with the streaking comet.

Pictures of the oddly-shaped rock had already been returned, but the ESA hopes to see images from within about 75 miles as the probe carries out the last of its braking maneuvers.

Full story: http://us.cnn.com/2014/08/06/world/rosetta-spacecraft-comet-approach/index.html

[cnnews]2014-08-06[/cnnews]

[jpinx]

Brilliant !!!!!!!!

 

 

alternative source....  http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-28659783

 

 

[Phra Ek]

Is Bruce Willis on board?

[GentlemanJim]

It is quite astounding what mans ingenuity can achieve when it is diverted away from war mongering. To place a spacecraft in orbit around a comet from so far away - and remotely, is a breath taking achievement!

[Guest]

Quite amazing calculations to get Rosetta there. 

 

 

 

Today, Rosetta is just 100 km from the comet’s surface, but it will edge closer still. Over the next six weeks, it will describe two triangular-shaped trajectories in front of the comet, first at a distance of 100 km and then at 50 km.

The final timeline for the sequence of events for deploying Philae – currently expected for 11 November – will be confirmed by the middle of October.

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta/Rosetta_arrives_at_comet_destination

 

 

[ZigZagMan]

Carl Sagan speculated that humans will one day bring these into earth orbit for mining or make them habitable, then send colonies of earthlings off to visit our cosmic neighbors.
Far out.

[rethaier]

Great technological achievement but.....  I think there are far better ways humanity could be served with the money spent on this mission.

[Guest]

Great technological achievement but.....  I think there are far better ways humanity could be served with the money spent on this mission.

I guess most of the money spend on these kind of projects has been salaries for various scientists, engineers, support personnel and sub contractors while they have developed technologies to get the probe to the comet. These money has been spend on local markets for food for their families etc.

 

While the project has solved the problems, they have been creating new science which can and will spin new, yet unknown, applications for the benefit of humanity.

 

The same applies to the large hadron collider et al. What they find today might just prove some theories, but maybe in 50 years we'll be able to produce almost limitless energy in the new way which is using these basic finds which the scientists are doing today. 

 

So they did not sent 1.3B Euros to the space. The actual material cost which was sent out must be just a fraction of the costs. 

[onionluke]

South Kensington , on a comet  , a property developers dream .

[ChoakMyDee]

"Billions" of miles? I don't think so.

[amse]

Really Exciteing, like when Rocky & Bullwinkle went to the Moon!

[Guest]

They are using kilometers :)

 

The journey to the comet was not straightforward, however. Since its launch in 2004, Rosetta had to make three gravity-assist flybys of Earth and one of Mars to help it on course to its rendezvous with the comet. This complex course also allowed Rosetta to pass by asteroids Šteins and Lutetia, obtaining unprecedented views and scientific data on these two objects.

“After ten years, five months and four days travelling towards our destination, looping around the Sun five times and clocking up 6.4 billion kilometres, we are delighted to announce finally ‘we are here’,” says Jean-Jacques Dordain, ESA’s 

 

Source: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta/Rosetta_arrives_at_comet_destination

 

I'm still amazed how they are able to do this kind of calculations to get the probe to the right place. 

 

Another amazement is how to make the prole to go around the comet which have miniscule gravitation. The probe must be just in right place with just right speed compared to the comet. 

 

 

[OccamsRazor]

They are using kilometers

 

 

Even so that is 4 billion miles. 

[canman]

"Billions" of miles? I don't think so.

Yes, approx 4 billion miles. Why don't you think so?

This probe was launched 10 years ago which gives an average speed of 45,000 miles per hour, not really that fast for a space craft.

[JacChang]

My great great great grandsons will be able to enjoy this technology and research.

[orosee]

Great technological achievement but.....  I think there are far better ways humanity could be served with the money spent on this mission.

 

Sheesh...

 

I recently read that the German share of this mission - 300 million Euros - is the same as the advertising budget for Ferrari for a single year. 

 

Guess what, that information was in a reply to a commenter - there ALWAYS is at least one of them when scientific topics are discussed - that "the money could be better spent elsewhere."

 

Investing time & money into knowledge expansion is what has brought humanity forward (including the "invention" of the internet, newspapers, TV - whatever media people like to use to tell the World that "that money should have been spent elsewhere."

 

Do you also think that Van Gogh should have spent his time better than painting, or Mozart could have been a better achiever as a dentist?

 

Sheesh...

[Chicog]

"Billions" of miles? I don't think so.

 

Do you think so now?

 

[webfact]

4 Billion Miles in 10 Years: Rosetta Spacecraft Finally Reaches Comet
by Amanda Wills

After traveling 4 billion miles over the past decade, the European Space Agency's Rosetta probe reached its destination: a comet orbiting between Mars and Jupiter.

The arrival marks a huge milestone for mankind in space and is a huge step toward Rosetta's next goal, landing a spacecraft on a comet. Rosetta rendezvoused with the comet known as 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on Wednesday after a seven-minute thrust.

[b]Full story: [/b]http://mashable.com/2014/08/06/rosetta-esa-comet-67p/

[b]-- Mashable[/b] 2014-08-07

[metisdead]

An off topic deflection post bashing Thais has been removed as well as the replies.

[ChoakMyDee]

 

"Billions" of miles? I don't think so.

 
Do you think so now?
 

 

Well, seeing as the sun is only 93,000,000 miles away and Rosetta never left our solar system, it is basic math to question how it traveled billions of miles without leaving our solar system.

[Guest]

 

Well, seeing as the sun is only 93,000,000 miles away and Rosetta never left our solar system, it is basic math to question how it traveled billions of miles without leaving our solar system.

Well, there are no miles when it comes to the science. Let's switch to the metric system.

 

I think at this point we have  to ask advice from the guys who ran 400 meter track on The Olympics. Would it been better if they have just stayed still and got a gold medal for it?

[OccamsRazor]

 

 

"Billions" of miles? I don't think so.

 
Do you think so now?
 

 

Well, seeing as the sun is only 93,000,000 miles away and Rosetta never left our solar system, it is basic math to question how it traveled billions of miles without leaving our solar system.

 

 

Pluto is 7.67 billion kms from Earth.  Distance across our solar system is 11.9 billion kms.   However, the craft did not fly as the proverbial bird but slingshot to build up speed.  In other words, it didn't go in a straight line increasing the 'travel' distance even more.  Example, distance from Chiang Mai to Phuket by air is 1176 km, by land 1527  kms.  Of course perhaps you feel you are a more clever scientist/mathematician than the ones on the project.    Or perhaps everything that has to do with flying recently has to have a conspiracy to go along with it.

 

 

[ChoakMyDee]

 

 

 

"Billions" of miles? I don't think so.

 
Do you think so now?
 

 

Well, seeing as the sun is only 93,000,000 miles away and Rosetta never left our solar system, it is basic math to question how it traveled billions of miles without leaving our solar system.

 

 

Pluto is 7.67 billion kms from Earth.  Distance across our solar system is 11.9 billion kms.   However, the craft did not fly as the proverbial bird but slingshot to build up speed.  In other words, it didn't go in a straight line increasing the 'travel' distance even more.  Example, distance from Chiang Mai to Phuket by air is 1176 km, by land 1527  kms.  Of course perhaps you feel you are a more clever scientist/mathematician than the ones on the project.    Or perhaps everything that has to do with flying recently has to have a conspiracy to go along with it.

 

 

 

Thanks for your explanation. No I definitely do not think myself smarter than any scientist/mathematician. When I read the short article I immediately assumed it was an error and they meant "millions" not "billions" as assuming the craft was launched from earth and was now going around the sun. I read a lot of articles here that have mistakes so I automatically assumed it was a typo. I'm on a very slow internet connection by satellite and unfortunately I can't click the link to read the entire article. 

[daveAustin]

Great technological achievement but.....  I think there are far better ways humanity could be served with the money spent on this mission.

Such as... bigger and better bombs for another war? Bigger and better CO2-spewing factories? Build a highway through the Amazon? Give more money to the homeless so they can buy more drugs?

There is always at least one person to make such a comment when any amount is spent on space exploration. It is comments like the above that would have us all rolling around in the mud in a crappy pre-Industrial Revolution world. Such comments are ill thought, typically by people who bumble through life with one-dimensional spectacles. There is nothing more cringeworthy and I t does nothing to further the development of humanity. I would like to see the faces of these people just before the earth gets flattened by a comet/asteroid we never saw coming. Duh, what's that!

This project is fantastic. Our destiny is space and the more money spent on it the better. The current budget is pathetic and minuscule.

[AnotherOneAmerican]

 

"Billions" of miles? I don't think so.

 
Do you think so now?
 

 

Well, seeing as the sun is only 93,000,000 miles away and Rosetta never left our solar system, it is basic math to question how it traveled billions of miles without leaving our solar system.

Americam billion =1,000,000,000
Radius of orbit = 93,000,000, circumference = 2x pi x radius = 500,000,000 per orbit
10 years orbiting the sun, 4B seems OK.

[WitawatWatawit]

Exciting. It should have its own forum, a science forum.

:)

[impulse]

 

Great technological achievement but.....  I think there are far better ways humanity could be served with the money spent on this mission.

Such as... bigger and better bombs for another war? Bigger and better CO2-spewing factories? Build a highway through the Amazon? Give more money to the homeless so they can buy more drugs?

This project is fantastic. Our destiny is space and the more money spent on it the better. The current budget is pathetic and minuscule.

 

How about Ebola hospitals in Africa?  To head off the epidemic that could wipe us out in our lifetime.  How about feeding the billions of hungry?  How about water desalination plants in places where they don't have clean water?

 

My destiny isn't in space.  Your destiny isn't in space.  Nobody either of us knows has their destiny in space.  In our lifetimes, a few dozen highly qualified and selected people may establish a colony on Mars.  You won't be related to any of them, and neither will I.  I'd prefer they spend my tax dollars on us, on today's problems,  in the here and now.

 

As long as we believe we have another place to go when we have thrashed the earth, we'll continue to thrash the earth, forgetting geometric math where if we overpopulate the earth, going to Mars only gets us another couple of decades, because that's how fast the population doubles to overpopulate 2 planets.

 

This mission may bring us closer to the technology we need to mine the body.  Then some mining companies (probably Chinese ones) will send a craft up to privatize the benefits, while we, the public, sponsor the heavy $$$ lifting.

[Guest]

Exciting. It should have its own forum, a science forum.

It will come some day. I'm sure it will come some day :D

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/576528-science-forum/

[orosee]

 

Great technological achievement but.....  I think there are far better ways humanity could be served with the money spent on this mission.

Such as... bigger and better bombs for another war? Bigger and better CO2-spewing factories? Build a highway through the Amazon? Give more money to the homeless so they can buy more drugs?

This project is fantastic. Our destiny is space and the more money spent on it the better. The current budget is pathetic and minuscule.

 
How about Ebola hospitals in Africa?  To head off the epidemic that could wipe us out in our lifetime.  How about feeding the billions of hungry?  How about water desalination plants in places where they don't have clean water?
 
My destiny isn't in space.  Your destiny isn't in space.  Nobody either of us knows has their destiny in space.  In our lifetimes, a few dozen highly qualified and selected people may establish a colony on Mars.  You won't be related to any of them, and neither will I.  I'd prefer they spend my tax dollars on us, on today's problems,  in the here and now.
 
As long as we believe we have another place to go when we have thrashed the earth, we'll continue to thrash the earth, forgetting geometric math where if we overpopulate the earth, going to Mars only gets us another couple of decades, because that's how fast the population doubles to overpopulate 2 planets.
 
This mission may bring us closer to the technology we need to mine the body.  Then some mining companies (probably Chinese ones) will send a craft up to privatize the benefits, while we, the public, sponsor the heavy $$$ lifting.

I wonder if taking 0.1% of the military budget wouldn't be more effective than taking 90% of the science budget. I never heard a doctor complain that governments spend too much on science and education.

The arguments of healing the sick or feeding the hungry are so generically "good" as to strangle any counter-argument, so I'd say they're invalid. A better argument from your side would've been "why fund this space mission when we could've funded 5 other space missions that could yield more important results?"

No sense in mixing apples and oranges, these issues you list are unrelated.

A cynical person would even say that not spending millions on ebola clinics will save billions of dollars on the famine front, given some patience.

[impulse]

 

The arguments of healing the sick or feeding the hungry are so generically "good" as to strangle any counter-argument, so I'd say they're invalid. A better argument from your side would've been "why fund this space mission when we could've funded 5 other space missions that could yield more important results?"

No sense in mixing apples and oranges, these issues you list are unrelated.

A cynical person would even say that not spending millions on ebola clinics will save billions of dollars on the famine front, given some patience.

  

Not apples and oranges.  Guns and butter.  Totally unrelated, yet very intertwined.

 

We've got a "house" where the roof leaks, the kids need shoes and jabs, the lawn is dying and the driveway washed away in the last storm.  Yet we're spending $$$ billions on more (metaphoric) cable channels.

 

And anyone believing that letting Ebola get away from us will be of benefit on the famine front, doesn't belong to the same human race I do.  Any more than the guys that hoped AIDS would solve "the gay problem".